Rolling Meadows goes to extremes, tops Mundelein

There's not much middle ground with the Rolling Meadows girls basketball team.

Shooting-wise, it's either one extreme, or the other.

“Program-wide, we tell our kids that we want to shoot threes and layups, that's it. We're not much of a mid-range team,” Rolling Meadows coach Ryan Kirkorsky said. “That's our philosophy. And I like that style.”

Kirkorsky saw plenty that he liked on Tuesday night at the Mundelein Mustang Holiday Classic.

His team drained 10 three-pointers to out-shoot an almost equally-hot Mundelein team from long range.

A 58-43 victory moved Rolling Meadows to 10-3 on the season.

Mundelein (6-6) added to a long-range barrage that included 18 made three-pointers between the two teams. The host Mustangs hit 8 three-pointers on their end.

Overall, the two teams combined to attempt 43 three-pointers.

“We're looking for threes, especially in transition,” said Rolling Meadows guard Meghan King, who was 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and finished with a team-high 12 points. “It's a lot of fun.”

King was key in breaking open the game for Rolling Meadows.

She hit a string of 3 three-pointers early in the third quarter that extended a 5-point Rolling Meadows lead to 12 points.

“When you go against a team that can shoot the ball like Rolling Meadows can, you can't just take plays off (defensively),” Mundelein coach Brian Evans said. “You can't say, ‘Well, I hope they miss.' When they shoot as many as they do, you can't hope. Hope is not a strategy against a team like that. You've got to go out there and get a hand in their face and close out hard.

“There were five or six times in the third quarter when people we told our girls about to make sure that person put it on the ground, we let them get their feet set, square up and shoot it with bad close outs.”

Rolling Meadows wasn't always perfect on its perimeter defense either. Mundelein got some open looks at the basket and converted on enough to stay in the game early. The host Mustangs were down just 30-27 at halftime.

Guard Maria DeVito paced Mundelein with a game-high 17 points. She hit 5-of-9 three-pointers.

“We like to emphasize our shooting, too. We were hitting today,” DeVito said. “We played with as much intensity as we could and we really worked hard to get each other open.

“We just came out of halftime a little flat and they got a little run on us.”

Mundelein also got 9 points from Maddie Zazas and 6 points from Maggie Mahar. Rolling Meadows got 12 points from Kyra Spiwak and 8 points apiece out of Jamie Berry and Hannah Mickey.